What is the default setting for 'Malt Water Absorption'? This is the setting under 'Edit | Preferences | Constants | Malt Water Absorption'. I had never messed with it until checking it out today to answer a question re BTP, and forgot to note what the original setting was -- not realizing that it would change for all future sessions and recipes, as it looks like it has. My results were usually pretty good in the past, so I need to reset that to the original setting.

Now, when the 'malt water absorption' is changed and I exit BTP, the program never asks me if I want to save my preferences. And the new change is used for old recipes, too, so I presume that it will also be used for recipes that I might import from another user. This doesn't seem right, since I could (and probably do right now) have a grossly incorrect setting which is going to affect my recipe -- even past recipes that were good, as well as recipes from other users -- especially since I can't find the setting info displayed anywhere on the main screen or any displays, or on the printout, to flag me. I do see "Altitude" on the printout, which I don't know how to set or change (I'm probably just overlooking it somewhere).

Anyway, my suggestion is to change the way the 'malt water absorption' setting is saved or something along those lines. You could add a 'Save for this Session Only' button for someone who wants to experiment, or perhaps a 'Return to Default' button, or maybe just have the preference change back to whatever it was for the recipe that is being loaded. Seems like this could be a crucial setting that, if inadvertently changed or changed and forgotten about, like while experimenting with the program, could have bad effects.

Along those lines, I have no idea whether some malts absorb more water than others, or how or when that setting should be changed. Any feedback?

Specific Volume of Malt should be 0.75 L/Kg by default. This is the volume that one Kg of malt occupies when submersed in water.

billvelek wrote:I'm still curious, if you or any of the other members here know, if there are any differences in the above settings between one type of grain and another.

In reality, I'm sure there are differences; but that is data not readily available without actually testing each ingredient. Perhaps in the future absorption can be more fine tuned. For now, this method provides a reasonable approximation to account for water absorbed by the mash.